


Only Regrets Will Follow

by draculard



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Forbidden Love, Hidden Relationships, M/M, Mutual Pining, Requited Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23148307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/draculard/pseuds/draculard
Summary: His fingertips touched Obi-Wan’s. Their eyes slid toward each other. He felt the surge of the Force between them, welling up in Obi-Wan’s chest, making Anakin’s throat tighten until he was forced to look away."You know we can't," he said.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 117
Collections: It's All in the Name (Take #1)





	Only Regrets Will Follow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yujacheong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujacheong/gifts).



Any rendezvous with Padmé — no matter how quick, no matter how clandestine — left Anakin with a bounce in his step, and today was no different. He made his way through the ancient Senate building on Coruscant, keeping to empty, shadowed halls, his mind swirling back over it all.

The way she’d smiled at him. The brush of her fingers against his. The delight in her eyes when he’d come through the door  — tokens of friendship and  _ only _ tokens of friendship, but still. From his childhood on Tatooine to his adolescence in the Jedi temple, friendship had been hard to come by and even harder to keep. 

He felt the presence of someone else long before he rounded the hallway; it gave him time to settle his features into a more neutral cast, to slow his pace, to take the light out of his eyes.

And then he turned the corner, saw Obi-Wan waiting for him, and knew his effort was wasted.

“Anakin,” said Obi-Wan disapprovingly. His eyes flicked from the hem of Anakin’s robes up to his jawline before meeting Anakin’s coolly. 

“Master,” Anakin said. He quirked his lips into a smile. Obi-Wan didn’t return it; he stepped forward, leaned in close and turned his head to the side. His shoulder touched Anakin’s; his eyes were on a glazed window nearby.

“Be more careful with your indiscretions, Anakin,” he advised.

Before Anakin could respond, he was walking away.

* * *

He wasn’t blind, of course. He saw the way  Padmé looked at him and recognized it; it was the same way he’d looked at her when they were children.

It was the same way he looked at Obi-Wan now.

The difference, of course, was that as a child, anything had been possible for Anakin  — and for  Padmé , former Queen of Naboo, anything was possible still. There was no religious order guiding her every move; there was no council of masters watching her like a hawk to ensure she complied. 

There was  _ expectation _ in the way  Padmé looked at him.

What, if anything, could he expect from Obi-Wan?

* * *

There were missions in the Clone War that seemed to stretch every nerve in Anakin’s body until he was close to breaking, and then there were missions like this  — missions in the lower layers of Coruscant where all he was left with was a satisfying ache from his worn-out limbs and a throbbing, hazy quality to his vision caused by all those everlasting lights.

He walked back to the Temple silently, Obi-Wan at his side, neither of them inclined to speak. It was one of the comfortable silences they’d started slipping into not long after Anakin became Obi-Wan’s Padawan; it was the sort of thing not all masters and apprentices could have.

It was something Anakin treasured. The way his silence wrapped around Obi-Wan’s. Fire around water. Everything they needed to tell each other going unsaid, understood.

His fingertips touched Obi-Wan’s. Their eyes slid toward each other. He felt the surge of the Force between them, welling up in Obi-Wan’s chest, making Anakin’s throat tighten until he was forced to look away.

“You know we can’t,” said Obi-Wan so quietly it could have been a trick of Anakin’s imagination. A wish come true.

“I know,” he said, and they walked forward together, side by side, not touching.

And the silence went on. 


End file.
